


Myrmidon and the Penalty

by WattStalf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Superhero universe, origninal work - Freeform, superhero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 18:13:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4845416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Warning: Mention of rape/torture. Nothing described.<br/>Driven to avenge a mentor, Jack Rivers dons a costume and fights crime in a fictional Louis City. Along the way, he encounters other vigilantes. Of these, there is the Penalty, a woman who he cannot quite figure out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Myrmidon and the Penalty

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, yes, this is my super hero universe. Corina and Kenneth Raine are from another story I haven't yet finished, but yeah. I wrote this as a short story for an English class, because I was given a very short notice and decided to work off of something I already had.  
> Lexintopolis and Louis City are meant to be both references to Metropolis and Gotham City of the DCU, as well as Lexington and Louisville. I'm a Kentucky native, and use a fictional location based off it for my setting.

Jack Rivers and his family had moved from Lexintopolis to Louis City when he was young. His father had been a well-respected cop there, though nowhere near as well-respected as the famous officer Kenneth Raine, who was the twin brother of the reason behind the Rivers family's relocation.

Corina Raine was a part of a crime wave that swept Lexintopolis, with criminals that emulated comic book villains with their loud outfits and grandiose schemes. She was not the first, but she was the most fearsome and that was when her brother donned a mask with his police uniform to become the first “hero” and get his sister under control. Jack's father lost his hand when attempting to stop her, but that was not what made him decide it was time for his family to move. No, that did not happen until Corina fatally shot Officer Raine and then threw herself off the top of a building.

He claimed that they left that city because the area held too many painful memories to live there, what with his missing hand and the death of his close friend, but Jack always suspected that it was because they never found Corina's body.

Regardless of the reason, Jack grew up in Louis City hearing stories of Kenneth's heroics and Corina's terror, and was incredibly grateful that the “villain” trend had died along with her. Until the day she came back out of nowhere, with a new costume and her trademark thirst for chaos, most definitely not dead.

Jack was twenty-two and fresh out of college with no idea where his life was going when Corina made her grand return, and criminals began taking after her example. The villainous crime wave had started all over again, but this time it spread all the way to Louis City. These new villains went the extra mile to emulate comics, with better costumes, added gimmicks, and even code names. Jack knew that it was only a matter of time before there would be a new generation of heroes who knew nothing of the original.He did not want Kenneth to be forgotten and unavenged, nor could he let his father suffer a similar fate. One had given a hand and career and the other had given a life for this fight; he would not let their sacrifices be forgotten.

~X~

His father had a desk job now, but still worked with the police department. Therefore, Jack had grown up around the LCPD, and had absolutely no trouble figuring out the ins and outs of it. He was able to obtain an old set of riot gear that he modified to be a dark blue, with some green accents. He purchased all of his weapons through various online methods, sticking to non-lethal items. Any spare time was spent working out or training himself with these weapons, until he was confident that no criminal, least of all any villain, could escape him.

The last step to the process was choosing a name for himself. He could not take to the streets as Jack Rivers- he had no idea how the city's law enforcement would feel about vigilantes. He scoured online dictionaries for the word that would signify what he was, and when he came across the definition, “a subordinate who executes orders unquestioningly or unscrupulously”, he knew he had found the right one. He had only met Kenneth Raine once, and he was too young for it to have been much of a memory, but he would always consider himself his subordinate.

His work went off without a hitch, and before long, he had earned a reputation as a hero. Though the question of the legality of vigilantes was brought up, several police officers vouched for him. His staunchest supporter was his own father, and he suspected that he knew exactly what his son was doing.

The mayor had the final say on it, and claimed that he would welcome any vigilantes with open arms so long as they did not purposefully target innocents or commit crimes of their own. The villains were too much for ordinary cops to handle, he said, and they needed someone just as willing to don a costume and fake identity to stop them.

And so the city accepted Myrmidon as its protector.

~X~

It had been a long night for Jack. The petty criminals were out in droves, and though he had not set out to take those on, it got difficult to ignore something happening right under your nose while waiting for a big-time villain to show up. He trusted the police to handle it, and he didn't want to do their jobs for them, but there was no harm in picking off some of the stragglers, right?

He just didn't want to see anyone get hurt, was all. He would gladly let the cops take all of the minor bad guys, but if someone was in danger, he wouldn't stand idly by. And so it had been a long night of tiny busts, with no sign of anything big.

He supposed that was a good thing, and began to make his way home, careful not to draw any attention to himself. The streets were finally starting to die down, at least. No one to spot the young vigilante and cause unneeded trouble for him.

And then he heard the screaming.

Well, it was more like sobbing, but it was high-pitched due to panic, yet still masculine in quality. A man was in some sort of trouble; it sounded like he was begging for his life and, if Jack listened closely, he could hear a low buzzing that seemed to be the voice of another person.

Wasting no time, he broke into a run, but slowed as he approached what he believed to the source of the noise. He peered around a corner stealthily, and was surprised by what he saw.

As predicted, there was a man. He was on the ground, whimpering and teary-eyed, with a gun to his head and a boot on his back. But the boot belonged not to some beefy thug or crime lord, but to a young woman.

She was tall, with wavy black hair. She wore almost entirely black, with a leather jacket over top a corset, fingerless gloves, and leather pants and boots. The only thing she wore that was not black was the ammunition belt on her hips, which was golden and looked fake. Her eyes were a bright green and there was black face paint surrounding them in the shape of a domino mask. She wore a choker with a charm that resembled a bio-hazard symbol and dark red lipstick, and she was grinning sadistically.

“Come on, fess up already. I know ya know what I wanna know, so spit it out!” she urged, poking the man in the temple with her gun.

“I-I-I told ya! I-I don't know nothin'! I swear!” he sobbed, trembling.

“Well, I don't like the sound a'that,” she replied in an easy tone. “See, yer swearin' ya don't know, but _I_ swears I heard different. Now, why doncha drop the innocent act and tell me where that sonuva bitch is!”

“Hey,” said Jack, stepping forward to intervene. “Just what do you think you're doing?”

“Oh, ya know,” the girl replied, not seeming at all surprised by his appearance. “Just fuckin' shit up.”

“Is that right? Well, unfortunately, that seems to involve threatening civilians, and I'm going to have to ask you to cease and desist.”

“Lookit you, Mr. Cop Wannabe! Y'even got the lingo down! Pretty impressive for a vigilante, I gotta say. But yer a little screwy on a few things. Namely, seems ta me that you think _I'm_ the bad guy in this situation,” she said, her tone of voice casual, as if she wasn't holding a gun to a man's head. “See, he's got connections to _Ramshackle_ . Best gun-for-hire in this city's underground? Started strikin' out on his own recently? Ya might have heard of 'im. _Any_ way, I've been trackin' 'im down, and watcha walked in on tonight was just some routine interrogation.”

“And how do I know you're telling the truth?”

“Aw, come on, look at me!” She gestured to the painted on mask. “I'm one a _your_ kind, see? We just gots different methods, you an' me. But we both wanna stop the bad guys, right?”

“Let the man go, and then maybe I might be able to trust you one day,” he replied simply. He could not prove that she was wrong in targeting this man even if he did not approve of her methods, and he could not prove that this man was actually connected to Ramshackle. But he knew that if either one of them was truly a criminal, they would make themselves known to him again somehow, and he could take care of them when they did. He would take special care to keep tabs on this woman.

She looked ready to argue for just a moment before she gave him a defeated smile. “Fine, fine, I get it. He wasn't given me nothin' anyway, and I can't get nothin' done if I got the heroes on my back too.” She stepped off of the man, removing the gun from his head.

Jack stepped forward to help the man up and noticed a large, dark patch on the man's pants. He had pissed himself from terror. He did not thank Jack for saving him and instead took off running without a second thought. Jack turned his attention back to the strange lady.

“So, what was it ya call yerself again?” she asked. “Somethin' weird, right?”

“It's Myrmidon. What about you? Do you have a name?”

“Well, that's a dumb question if I've ever heard one. Who the hell don't got a name? Everyone's got at least one, and I'm willin' ta bet ya got at least two. Unless yer parents actually hated ya enough to call ya Myrmidon.” She chuckled. “I happen to have two myself, but these days I prefer ta go by-” and here she gave a theatrical pause- “ _the Penalty_.”

Jack cocked an eyebrow, then remembered that she could not see his face. “The Penalty?” he asked.

She looked confused. “Well, yeah, that's what I said. The Penalty! Ya know, like...if ya break tha law, ya gotta pay _the Penalty_! It's fuckin' badass, really. Came up with it all by m'self.” She grinned, nodding proudly.

“Well,” said Jack, not knowing how else to respond. After a pause, he said, “I'll be seeing you around, I guess. Good luck with your hunt for Ramshackle.”

“Yeah, I'm sure yer gonna see me 'round,” was all she said before she turned and trudged off down the alley. He noticed, as she walked away, that she had a holster on each thigh, one on each hip, one under each arm, and two large guns strapped to her back. She was most definitely not the same sort of vigilante as him, if she was even a vigilante at all.

~X~

For weeks after that, Jack could not get his encounter with “the Penalty” out of his head, and always kept an eye out for her when he was on patrol. He saw her a few times, but never in another questionable exchange, and he even once caught the tail end of her nabbing a man attempting to hold up a convenience store. It seemed that she really was on his side, or was at least keeping her nose clean whenever he had an eye on her.

She was not the only other vigilante in the city, and he actually happened upon two others over those weeks. There was Razzmatazz, a magician out for her own sort of vengeance- Corina Raine had been a magician, giving the profession a rather bad name. Razzmatazz wanted to prove that crime and magic were not mutually exclusive.

She was friendly and helpful, and Jack had started to look for her on patrols as well, for a very different reason than he had for looking for the Penalty. He had to admit that he found her beautiful in an exotic way, with her caramel-colored skin, her curly hair with lavender-dyed tips, and her red-sequined costume. She and the Penalty were as different as night and day, as far as he could tell.

Cutlass was quite different from Razzmatazz as well. He was a strange swordsmen who wore casual clothes as opposed to a costume, and a mask that covered all but the tip of his nose and below. He had a habit of appearing suddenly and disappearing even more so, and did not seem to speak much. He had assisted Jack a few times, showing up when he was in a pinch, but the two had barely held a conversation.

It was during one of those fights that he started to wonder why the four known vigilantes of Louis City had all done mostly solo work. And the more he thought about this, the more he realized that it did not make sense. Numbers had tended to work out in comic books; what was stopping him from applying that concept to real life?

He went directly to the mayor with his proposal. It was met with surprising eagerness, and when he asked for a meeting place to speak with the others, he was given an old apartment building that was now owned by the city. He was told it would serve as their headquarters and could be remodeled in whatever way would suit his new team's needs.

After some consideration for a name, he composed a list to have the others vote on, and began tracking them down to tell them about the upcoming meeting. Razzmatazz was easy to find, with her flashy magic and costume, and general lack of secrecy to her crime fighting. Cutlass, elusive as he was, was not completely impossible to hunt down- he did not limit himself to villains, and would tackle any sort of criminal he came across.

By this point, Jack was so familiar with the Penalty that he found her the easiest to spot out of all of them. The night before the meeting, he approached her during her usual patrol of the city, wondering if she was still looking for Ramshackle. As far as he knew, the man had not been arrested recently, but he seemed too small-time to spend that much focus on. He only just beginning to strike out as more than hired muscle, and it seemed unlikely that the Penalty would still care about arresting him when there were people like Corina Raine out there.

“Well, look who stopped by ta say hello,” said the Penalty, with her easy grin.

“I have a proposition for you,” he said, cutting to the chase.

“Why, Myrmidon, ya barely know me,” she proclaimed, feigning a shocked expression. “Doncha think it's a little early ta be considerin' marriage?” She burst into near-hysterical laughter, though he did not think it was that funny.

When she had finally calmed down, he was able to say, “That's not even close to what I was going to say. Tomorrow, at six. There's a meeting, and I think you should attend. It's small stuff, just me and a few other vigilantes. Have you met Razzmatazz or Cutlass before?”

“Course I have! Worked with both of 'em once, actually. Though, I gotta say, what's this six PM meeting nonsense? What happened to tha mysterious cover a night?” She laughed again, and he noticed for the first time just how raspy a laugh it was. He recalled seeing her smoking a few times when he had spotted her on the streets.

He didn't answer her question, instead slipping her a piece of paper. “There's an address on there. Remember, tomorrow at six. I really hope to see you there.”

“Alright, kid, whatever you say.” She gave him a wink and they both walked off in opposite directions.

~X~

The next day, at 6:05, Jack began to wonder about the success of his meeting. Razzmatazz had arrived a few minutes early, but Cutlass and the Penalty were both running late. He had made brief conversation with the girl, but it had quickly turned to an uncomfortable silence and he found he had no idea how to speak to someone as attractive as her.

She was much shorter than him, with a stocky build and curves that he could barely keep his eyes off of. She even wore fishnet stockings with her costume, forgoing the pants one would typically wear with a magician's suit and wearing shorts. If she was doing all of this because she wanted to be looked at, he could not tell, but he felt guilty whenever his eyes roamed her body without her permission.

It was 6:07 when he heard a knock at the door. The lobby of the apartment building had been gutted, leaving them with only a table to conduct their meeting. Jack did not think they needed much more than this, but he hoped that when the team started up, they could have a nicer room to conduct strategy meetings in.

He stood and walked over to the door, opening it to reveal the Penalty, her hand resting on one of her holsters. She dropped her hand and flashed a smile when she saw it was him, shoving past to walk in. “Gotta say, wasn't sure if this was some fucked up trap or not! Still could be but...if it's jus' you an' this chick, I think I stand a pretty good chance in a fight!” She pulled a chair out from the table, turning it around so that she sat on it backwards, her legs spread with the back in between.

Jack took his seat and said, “Alright, now we just have to wait for Cutlass.”

The Penalty snorted. “He ain't coming. We all know what this little meeting's about, and he most certainly would not be caught dead at somethin' like this.”

“You don't know that for sure,” he argued. “He could just be caught up with something. We should wait for him just a little bit longer.”

“Suit yerself,” she replied with another snort. He chose to ignore her, but as time went by and there was still not sign of Cutlass, he had to admit to himself that she might be right about that. He had been so hopeful that the four of them could work together, but it did make sense that Cutlass would be a loner, given how hard he seemed to work to stay mysterious.

After another ten minutes had passed, he sighed before clearing his throat and saying, “Alright, then. I think everyone whose showing up has. So, I suppose it's time to move on to the purpose of this meeting. As you guys know, I'm Myrmidon and I've been fighting crime in Louis City for a few months now. Recently, I've noticed the two of you out on the streets, doing the same thing I do, and I wondered what would happen if we combined forces. Therefore, I wanted to propose the idea of a team of heroes, consisting of those of us present, and maybe even more someday! If Cutlass ever comes around, or if we meet any other heroes, we could invite them into the group.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” said Razzmatazz, beaming at him. “I would definitely want to be a part of something like that.”

“Well, my answer is a resoundin' 'fuck no',” the Penalty said, shrugging. They both turned to her with confused expressions and she laughed. “What, did either of ya really think I would wanna do somethin' like this? I only showed up to this damn meeting to politely decline in person.”

“But...if we worked together, we could cover so much ground and get so much done!” Jack argued.

“That's right,” said the other woman, “and let's not forget that there's safety in numbers. A group gives us an advantage over most of the villains.”

“And what makes either of ya think a group would work in the first place?” she retorted, looking as if she was on the verge of hysterical laughter. “I mean, seriously. Look at both of ya, and then look at me.” She gestured and said, in a sing-songy tone, “ _One a these things just doesn't belong here_!” Her eyes narrowed and her smile vanished. “We all know we couldn't all get along. Cutlass knew it and didn't bother showin'. He an' I both do things differently from ya. Both a you guys don't kill. I don't see a damn problem with it if it gets the job done, and neither does Cutlass, from what I've seen. How would a group with such opposite morality get along?” Her smile returned, bigger and nastier than before, her face practically radiating smugness.

“I think...” Jack paused. What she said made sense, and he had considered it, but at the same time, he had hoped they could overlook differences like that. He had hoped that they could all bring something different to the table and become stronger through their differences. “I think that we shouldn't let semantics get in the way. We're all on the same side. It's us against them, and, like Razzmatazz said, they aren't big on alliances. We'd have an advantage that I think we need. I mean, do you realize what these people are capable of?”

Again the Penalty's smile was gone, and her green eyes flashed. Before Jack had time to react, she had leaped over her chair and was crouched in front of him on the table, holding him by the front of his shirt. She ripped his riot mask off, and the gas mask beneath it, staring directly into his brown eyes, snarling. “You really think _I_ don't know what they're capable of?” Her voice was different now- direct, intentional, almost polished.

She dropped her hold of him just as suddenly as she had grabbed him, hopping off the table and pacing the floor. “Did you honestly just ask me if I knew what they were capable of?!” She yanked one of her gloves off, pulling up her jacket sleeve. There were scars on her wrist, encircling them. “It's from rope digging into them,” she said. “I was tied up for weeks.”

The other two stared at her, not knowing what to say. “Back then I wasn't anybody. My parents...well, they didn't give a damn about me one way or another. My dad was a military guy, knew a lot of important people. One day, he tells me about this formal event, wants me to come and I think maybe this is my chance to reconnect with them. Of course, they barely acted like I was there, and I end up all alone in a room full of people who don't know me or notice me.

“Until this one guy did. He walks over to me, tells me how beautiful I am, all the typical charming lines. We dance, we flirt, we really hit it off. He says he has to go and I give him my number, thinking that I've finally met someone special. I was in such a daze, I barely noticed the guy who got murdered that night. I didn't know that that guy, that Conrad Richards, was Ramshackle. I didn't know he was there on an assassination job. I didn't know he wasn't just some charming guy, that he was dangerous. But I found out pretty quick when he kidnapped me a few days later.

“Like I said, I was there for weeks. He'd play all these romantic oldies on an honest-to-goodness record player while he hurt me. Sometimes he just did it to get me to do whatever he wanted, but sometimes he did it just for the hell of it. The motherfucker was sadistic as hell, and I know he got off to beating me senseless. I was there for weeks, listening to that old music and getting the shit beat out of me, and no one fucking noticed I was gone. There was no missing person's report, no concerned voice mails, nothing. There was nobody who knew or cared that I had gone missing.

“I'm really not sure how I got out of there, even to this day. He was a lot stronger than me. Almost inhuman, honestly. I shouldn't have been able to fight my way out, but I did. He might have even let me. It doesn't matter. Once I was out, I knew what I had to do. I had to get back at ConradRichards, I had to make Ramshackle pay for what he did to me. And knocking out others like him along the way was a bonus. The way I see, anyone who calls themselves a villain is just as bad as him and deserves the same punishment.” She fell silent, her story complete.

Jack did not know what to say to a story like that. He had had no idea just how awful things had been for her, and wondered if he had judged her a bit too harshly in the past. Finally, he found his words and said, “I understand, then. Why you don't want to work with anybody else, I mean. You were alone when he attacked you and nobody came to save you. It must be hard to trust people after that, and you must be used to doing everything alone.”

“What?” she asked, blinking a few times. She slid her glove back on. “Fuck that, that's got nothin' ta do with it.” Her old style of speech had returned, and the fire left her eyes. “Like I said, it's jus' cos I figured we couldn't make it work as a group. But, Jesus, if this is gonna turn into some pity party for me or whatever, then fuck that, I'll join as long as it keeps both of ya from lookin' at me like ya feel sorry for me or somethin'.”

“You...you'll join?” he asked, surprised that that was what it had taken to change her mind, and that it had been so easy.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm joinin',” she said. Razzmatazz gave a little cheer and she continued, “Don't act so happy about it, I'm just tryna prove ya wrong on two counts. One, I know we can't work together successfully, and two, I don't got no deep-seated trust issues or anythin' like that!”

“I understand,” said Jack, even though he did not really believe her. “Well, if that's settled, then there's only a few matters of business to attend to. First, I think we should make our identities known. You've all seen my face now, but my name is Jack Rivers.”

Razzmatazz removed her yellow domino mask and said, “Alexandra Gale, but most people call me Alex.”

The Penalty just shrugged. “This makeup don't really cover like a real mask, and it's a bitch ta get on and off, so I'm jus' gonna assume you could recognize me without it. Name's Francesca Pierce.”

Jack smiled. “It's a pleasure to meet you both, Alex, Francesca. Now, I think we should vote on a name.”

~X~

The meeting had ended and Jack was standing alone in the old lobby, thinking about how he would remodel it, when the door swung open and Francesca entered the room. He asked her what she was there for; she replied that he knew damn well what she was there for. She told him she had noticed the way he watched her, the way he had followed her around the city. He said that he still did not understand what she meant and she smirked.

She cornered him and she kissed him, and he kissed her back even though he did not really want to. They had sex on the floor of the lobby, but he spent more time wishing she were Alex, and she kept begging him to hit her. He pretended not to hear that. He tried to pretend that she really was Alex, but they were too different, and Alex wouldn't ask for somebody to hurt her as if it were a good thing. As if it were something she needed.

But he didn't stop, and they must have fallen asleep after he had finished, because he woke up the next morning, his back sore. Francesca lay next to him, still sleeping. Her makeup mask was smudged all to hell and there were ashes and a cigarette butt on the floor. She must have smoked at some point in the night.

She suddenly opened her eyes and said, “Good mornin', Myrmidon. Or should I call ya Jack?” She stood up and stretched, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. She took a long drag, and he still did not answer.

The guilt of what he had done assaulted him every time he looked at her, and he could not decide which part of it was worse. He had slept with Francesca, and he had had no reason or desire to, and she was damaged, and she wanted him to hit her, for God's sake, and all he had wanted was to spend the night with Alex.

“That wasn't really all that fun,” she said, looking down at him. He stood to meet her eyes, but she was still taller than him. He wondered how old she was, but it was obvious from looking at her that she was nearing her thirties. “No offense, kid, but...yer kinda borin'. I don't think we should ever do that again.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“S'no big deal.” She shrugged. “Not a lotta people who can gimme what I really need.”

She left soon after, and Jack knew that to her, the evening had meant nothing. There would be no consequence for her, and she simply did not care. He would not be surprised if she forgot their encounter altogether, and he wished that he shared in that ability.

~X~

There was another meeting soon after, where they discussed the name of the group further. Francesca, as predicted, acted the same as always, and Alex was none the wiser. Jack still felt guilty, even knowing that he too would not have to face any consequences for his actions.

It was business as usual, and they held their vote for the name of the team. After some suggestion and elimination, it was finally decided, upon a final vote. Unanimously, they agreed to call themselves the Cavalry.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for giving this lame story a chance, kids.


End file.
